At the beginning of the school year, ASB officers sent out a survey on the SHS Facebook page, looking for suggestions on how to spend the $276,000 that had accumulated over the years.
Since then, the ASB has been busy trying to put the money to good use.
In early September, for instance, the ASB allotted $5,000 to clubs and organizations through a grant system shared via Google Forms. Limiting money distribution to equipment that would impact future students, ASB distributed money for a printer in the journalism room, textbooks for FBLA and laptops for Zero Robotics.
“We considered every application and picked the ones that would have effects accessible to all students,” ASB secretary Spring Ma said.
Officers also discussed other major projects to take on. Roughly $25,000 is being spent on a new scoreboard to be installed in a more visible area in the football field. The new scoreboard can also display track competition times. Recently, a printer for full-color, high-quality posters was installed in the Activities Office for clubs, commissions, sports teams and other school groups to use.
“For the badminton team’s senior day, we printed 26 posters for the seniors using the ASB printer,” junior Megan Fung said. “It was easy to use and cheaper than other printing options.”
One of the most popular requests was court lights for the outdoor basketball courts. According to principal Paul Robinson, the LED lights, estimated to cost around $12,000, will be “low leveled” so that residents nearby the campus will not be impacted by the lighting.
“I'm really excited they are putting up the lights after all these years of us asking [the administrators],” said senior varsity basketball player Jatin Mohanty. “This addition will allow people who want to play longer past when the sun goes down.”
While these projects have been funded, there is still around $100,000 in the account for next year and beyond.
“[ASB] wanted to make sure that the money was spent properly so that all the students would benefit from it; that's why they are being so careful about it,” activities director Rebecca Marshburn said.
As new students take the place of the ASB officers, they will continue to discuss plans to spend the money.
“We hope that next year's ASB will continue to use the funds to help improve the school and help the students that go here,” ASB president Aakash Thumaty said.
